HIS 102 WEEK 4: FRENCH
REVOLUTION
Reading Assignment for the week:
Questions to
Consider while studying this week's material:
- What were the main characteristics of the
Ancien Régime (Old Regime) in France?
- Who was Napoleon and why
was he considered an embodiment of the revolution?
Key Terms to study
while reading the textbook:
- Third Estate
- Declaration of the Rights
of Man and of the Citizen
- Maximilien Robespierre
- Committee of Public Safety
- Napoleone Buonaparte (Napoleon)
Suggested Websites for further study:
- For extra credit please suggest to your instructor a
relevant website for this unit of the course. Send the title of the site, the url and a
brief explanation why you find the information interesting and applicable to
the material being studied this week.
Submit the French Paragraph:
Read the Declaration
of the Rights of Man (along with the document background notes
and the questions to consider).
Answer the following
question in a paragraph: Compare the rights mentioned in the French Declaration
with those mentioned in the Declaration of Independence and the English
Bill of Rights.
Your paragraph should be about
one-half page in length, double-spaced with one-inch margins, font size 10 or 12; it should
contain a concise topic sentence that directly responds to the assigned
question (no need to define terms or cite a dictionary) and use
direct, quoted material to support your points. Do not spend time repeating
what happened in the document; spend your time providing analysis to
answer the assigned question.
This assignment should be sent by e-mail according to the Electronic Submission
Information instructions.
Please remember to consult
Charlie's History Writing Center for
specific information on the writing requirements of this course.
You may also wish to post or respond in the
Blackboard online discussion forum
for this assignment. Please review the instructions for
Using the Blackboard
Discussion Forums, if necessary.
The French Paragraph is worth a maximum of
25 points.
Notes:
The French Revolution had a far greater
impact on the Western world than the American revolt ever did, even though the French
Revolution occurred
after the American example and even though the French championed many of the same
principles of natural rights as the Americans had. Although the
American Revolution was an inspiration to Europeans
and although the American revolt did affect England (somewhat), it occurred
in a far-off place for most people, and it did not affect nearly as many people as the
French Revolutionary wars did. (The American experience was
also far less violent than the French.) Events in France
reverberated everywhere (from
Moscow to Dublin) and affected everyone (from king to peasant) on the continent. In addition, the
French Revolution had a far-ranging overseas impact.
Napoleon became the subject of heated
debate after his death in 1821. Was this man a child of the French Revolution,
i.e., was he a symbol of all that the revolution stood for, or was he the
destroyer of the revolution, just another dictator? Did he destroy the revolution
with his dictatorship, a dictatorship based on limited political participation,
support of the church and suppression of free speech? Or did he symbolize
a new revolutionary order because he was able to rise to such a prominent position
based solely on his talent--It was highly unlikely that a son of minor Corsican
noble would have ever become a French general, let alone a major political
figure, in the Ancien Régime. Did Napoleon undo the ideals of the revolution
by his attempt to conquer all of Europe and subjugate it to his personal
control? Or did he fulfill the goals of the revolution by his wide-ranging
domestic reform program that swept away many of the remnants of the Old
Regime, for example his law code and new educational system?
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